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There are constant studies into the negative health effects of most foods. Think of all of the research that has been put into finding out whether meat is good or bad for us. Claims that a glass of wine and some dark chocolate once a day is good for you and counterclaims that reinforce the concept of alcohol and chocolate being as bad as ever. But you never read a bad claim about the health benefits fruit and vegetables. Unless you believe the school playground myth that eating more than six bananas in one sitting can cause you to overdose on potassium. So why is this? Well, it’s because fruit and vegetables are good for you in almost every way, shape and form.

How to best get all of your vitamins and minerals

The World Health Organisation recommends that we eat five portions of fruit and veg a day. This may be easy for some. Eating five portions a day can’t be that hard, right? However, if you have a hectic, on-the-go lifestyle and multiple mouths to feed every day, it’s easy to skip a portion or two now and then. An easy way to keep topped up is to drink your fruit and veg. Enter juicing. Juicing extracts all of the best parts of your fruit and veg.

Avoid store bought juices

Many of us make the mistake of assuming store bought, prepackaged juice is good for us. Well, juice is juice, right? This couldn’t be more untrue. Pasteurised juices from concentrate offer very little regarding nutrient content. Having sat on the shelf for months, their enzymes will have rapidly depleted. By juicing yourself, you know exactly what is going into your juices. You have no need to worry about extra added sugars or the juice being concentrated and topped up with water. You can also ensure that all the juice you consume is as fresh as possible. Home Juicing also allows you to experiment (which means fun!) with flavour combinations and build bespoke juices that cater to your personal needs.

Find the right juicer for you

Become a Juicer Cruiser and browse reviews of various juicers before making any purchase. Different juicers have varying pros and cons. Try to get a juicer that can be cleaned easily, as this will save a lot of hassle down the line. Other factors in your choice could be price, delivery options and the design of the juicer. You’ll want an appliance that fits in with the rest of your kitchen and most of all, that motivates you to get up and start juicing!

Prep your fruit and veg properly

Check which fruits and vegetables need pre-juicing preparation. The green leaves of carrots are toxic so should be removed before juicing. Apple seeds contain cyanide, so are best removed. Kiwi skins can create an unpleasant texture, and lemon skin can leave a bitter taste in your juice. Orange skin contains poisonous substances, so is best peeled off. Always wash your fruit and veg before juicing to remove any pesticides or dirt.

Drinking juice at least once a day will leave you feeling more energetic, radiant and active.While you’re at it, why not pick up some other new daily habits that can change your life for the better.

Most people don’t realize that it’s the things they do every day that change their lives for the better. Some people think that good things just happen to people. They think opportunity knocks or just falls into laps. It doesn’t! Success is attracted to people who make the effort to attract it. It comes to people who deserve success. The people who take the steps everyday to improve, no matter what they are going through. If you want to transform your life in every area, the following daily habits are essential for your success:

Get Up With Enthusiasm

When we get up each day with enthusiasm, we not only send a message to our brains but the world. If we struggle to get up every day, or resist it for as long as possible, we get into bad habits. We tell ourselves we don’t want to get up. Life isn’t good enough, not exciting enough. We want to change that feeling! By making a habit of getting up each day raring to start your day, whether you have much to do or whether it’s full of mundane tasks, you’ll get into good habits. Your life will almost start to improve by default. You want to send a message to the world that you love your life! When you get up enthusiastically each day, this is what you do. If you struggle to get out of bed, here are tips that can help you:

Have water by your bed ready to drink when you wake up. It should perk you up and stop you feeling fatigued.

Have your alarm clock away from your bed, preferably so you have to get up to turn it off.

Make your bed as soon as you get up so you’re not tempted to climb back in.

Brush your teeth to help wake yourself up. Do this before you eat anything.

Meditate

Meditation is becoming more well known (I wrote a detailed blog about it!), and all kinds of people are using it. It isn’t just for hippies. Successful business men and women are now using meditation to improve their lives and minds! By taking just 5-10 minutes each day to sit comfortably in silence, you could experience many benefits. You can feel more alert, creative, and inspired. You could actually come up with answers to questions that have been plaguing your mind. Getting into this habit will benefit your life in many ways.

Get Some Exercise

Exercise isn’t just for people who want to lose weight. Exercising does not mean you have to spend hours bored-to-death running on the treadmill. By getting a little exercise before you start your day, you can feel so much more focused and prepared for what the day throws at you. Even if you just go for a short walk around the block, it should clear your mind and help you prepare to do your work or tackle the day’s projects. There are other benefits too, of course, such as weight and fat loss, muscle gain, improved health and fitness, and less chance of developing illness and disease.

Eat Healthy Foods

Healthy foods will help you to feel more energized. They’ll change the way you feel, act, and think. If you fill your diet with unhealthy foods, you will feel tired and sluggish. This isn’t to say you can’t have treats, but you should make moderation something you pride yourself on. You should also include things like fresh herbs and spices. Having between 2 and 2.5g of turmeric per day is said to be beneficial – and it tastes great.

Work On Your Self Development Each Day

Working on your self development each day will make you a better person. This is the kind of thing you need to do, whatever your goals may be. Make sure you read more self development books (I have a ton of suggestions!) – they will give you invaluable advice to help you through life. Go to classes and seminars, focusing on learning as much as you can. Get to the root of your problems and work them out. Control your emotions by learning where they’re coming from and learning to work with them. All of these things will make you a much better person!

Be Grateful

Make sure you’re grateful, even if you don’t feel like you have that much to be grateful for. The fact you’re alive is enough to be grateful for! Look around you. Be grateful for a roof over your head. Great friends and family. Money in the bank, even if it’s not much. The more you are grateful, the more you’ll find to be grateful for.

I took photography as a hobby recently and discovered how much I love being outside, enjoying the peaceful mornings, nature, capturing moments forever…amongst other things. I realized that it’s beautiful sights like this one that make me feel so grateful and bring a smile to my face. (It’s the little things!)

I’m reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and I came across this lovely quote:

“It is the possibility, of having a dream come true, that makes life interesting.”

So, what’s your dream? What do you hope to achieve someday? What would you do if money wasn’t a concern? (Or health?) How does your perfect day look like? What do you do on your free time that if you got paid for would be like heaven?

These are just some questions I find to be quite necessary for us to ask once in a while; to get a feeling of how we’re doing, if we need to change anything, how the life plan is going, etc.

Unfortunately not many people ask themselves these questions; so they live their lives almost in autopilot – study, work work work, marriage, kids, retirement, death. There’s nothing wrong with that scenario, if that’s what you want. But if you don’t – change your situation. Ask yourself these questions. Move little by little towards your goal, your dream life, your perfect day. Don’t let anyone tell you what you *should* be doing.

Why do people meditate? Do people enjoy ‘sitting and doing nothing for an indefinite amount of time’? What benefit does meditating give me? These are all questions we’ve all come across or have had ourselves. They’re all great questions. My goal is to provide you the information so you can make the decision; to meditate or not to meditate – that is the question.

People meditate for different reasons; some to calm their anxiety, some are searching for peace or happiness and some are just plain curious. Whichever reason it is that is motivating you to try it, I’ll tell you this: you won’t regret it.

I once read that they asked Buddha “How shall we meditate?” Buddha replied, “Whatsoever you do, do it with awareness; this is meditation. Walking, walk attentively, as if walking is everything; eating, eat with awareness, as if eating is everything; rising, rise with awareness; sitting, sit with awareness. All your actions become conscious, your mind does not travel beyond this moment, it remains in the moment, settles in the moment – this is meditation.”

Becoming a mindful person can be the best thing you do for yourself. Can you imagine life without wondering what you’ll be doing tomorrow, next week, where your next vacation will be or what holiday is coming up? Can you imagine just enjoying what you’re doing right now? Whether you’re on your commute to/from work, reading a book, spending time with your loved ones, at work, at the grocery store… can you imagine just being there? Without thoughts rushing in and out of your mind. Because after all, what does having all those thoughts in your mind do for you? They’re certainly not helpful thoughts if they have nothing to do with what you’re doing right now.

According to Sara Lazar, a neuroscientist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, due to “evidence that meditation had been associated with decreased stress, decreased depression, anxiety, pain and insomnia, and an increased quality of life” she decided to do brain scans and discover which parts of the brain get activated when people practiced meditation. What she discovered was that the brain actually changed after eight weeks of meditation practice.

If you’re looking for motivation to start or feel like it will be too difficult; I’ve found a really simple guided meditation video that could help you! Meditation is not supposed to be just sitting in a room staring at the wall for 30 minutes; that sounds awful! A good way to look at it is a training of the mind. You are literally training your mind to enjoy the now, the moment, the present, to be aware and conscious. Just as we train for marathons by walking one kilometer today, two the next week, etc. or how we train ourselves to eat healthier by trying new ingredients, swapping ingredients, or changing a recipe.

As Buddha said, being aware and conscious is meditation. If you don’t feel comfortable sitting cross-legged (like the illustration shows) don’t, if you would prefer to have your hands on your lap, do so… It’s all about being comfortable and enjoying it. A lot of people think that they cannot think of anything during meditation – which can be extremely difficult given that we have such busy lives and we’re used to multi-tasking. This is not true. There are different ways of doing meditation, and doing the one that suits you will be the best one! I’ve read that one way to meditate is by actually thinking of a problem, giving it a shape, color, description (in your mind) and seeing it disappear. Other people simply will focus on the breath; in and out, 1 and two, and that will be enough. There is also no time limit; you may meditate for 10 minutes daily, 2 minutes, 17 minutes, it’s up to you. The point is to do it, which will help us become better at it.

Just remember, we’re looking for awareness and consciousness, not perfection! And just in case you need a little bit more motivation, here’s a list with more benefits of meditation!